Martin Guerre Tickets

This revival of Alain Boubil and Claude-Michel Schonberg’s musical is Matthew Warchus’ swansong at the theatre he has run so successfully since 2015. He’s unlikely to go out on a dud. Particularly as he is flying high at the moment with the transfer of the summer hit, Pride, from the NT to the Bridge. He is great at musicals, responsible for both Matilda and the best staging of Follies I’ve ever seen.  If he reckons Martin Guerre has got real legs, we should believe him. In fact, he is making darn sure that it does by premiering a brand new version of the musical which was first seen in the West End 30 years ago this year but which has since undergone numerous revisions. Warchus is describing it as “radically reworked" with new lyrics and new folk-inflected orchestrations, which Warchus has been developing for some time. This is a passion project for Warchus.      It’s a reminder that musicals are not written but fixed. And that can take many years. In fact, following lukewarm reviews (too long, too French, too complicated was the verdict) at its July 1996 premiere, Martin Guerre got its first major rewrite during the first six months of its run, re-opening in November 1996 over 50 per cent rewritten and far more appealing. It went onto win the 1997 Olivier for Best Musical. It was a flop which was reinvented as a hit. But Boubil and Schonberg were still not satisfied. Like the hero of the story itself, they keep returning to the musical, and the bets are on that this could be the version that makes Martin Guerre as successful as their other hits. It has always lagged alongside Les Misérables and Miss Saigon. The latter is returning to the West End in 2027 in a revival at the Prince Edward Theatre directed by Luke Sheppard.  Sure, there are no barricades and no helicopters in Martin Guerre, but it sounds as if Warchus is not trying to make up for the lack of spectacle for which Boubil and Schonberg are known but rather playing to the piece’s emotional strengths and moral complexities with a pared-back staging. That, along with the rewrites, could be just what it needs to make it fly.

After the phenomenal success of Les Miserables and Miss Saigon in the West End, another musical of duo Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boubil returns to London.